Aussie Demand For Netflix Could See The NBN ‘Collapse’

Way too much video

Might be worth having a few spare DVDs handy next time you tune into Netflix – experts are warning that exponential demand for streaming online video could create major outages.

RMIT University telecommunications expert Mark Gregory told The New Daily nightly viewing peaked between 5pm to 9pm, and the National Broadband Network (NBN) may struggle to cope with the traffic.

"Netflix is trying to say to customers that we can provide you with 4K [streaming]," associate professor Gregory said.

"But if they were to transmit at 50-70 megabits [Mbps] a second required for 4K, our network could collapse."

With 80 per cent of Aussies currently only able to access 25 Mbps of data per second on the NBN, it could create major headaches on those crucial Game Of Thrones nights already set aside in the diary.

The increased viewing habits of streaming online video – particularly at night – has also been confirmed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, who reported Aussies downloaded one million terabytes of data between March and June 2017.

With demand at its greatest at around 8pm each night, it’s also been a 43 per cent increase in the period between June 2016 and June 2017.